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Small World Board Game |
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Availability:
In stock
List Price:
$50.00
Our Price:
$38.95
You Save:
$11.05 (22%)
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Description:
Small World, the fun, zany, light-hearted civilization board game!In Small World, players vie for conquest and control of a world that is simply too small to accommodate them all.
Designed by Philippe Keyaerts as a fantasy follow-up to his award-winning Vinci™, Small World is inhabited by a zany cast of characters such as dwarves, wizards, amazons, giants, orcs and even humans; who use their troops to occupy territory and conquer adjacent lands in order to push the other races off the face of the earth.
Picking the right combination from the 14 different fantasy races and 20 unique special powers, players rush to expand their empires - often at the expense of weaker neighbors. Yet they must also know when to push their own over-extended civilization into decline and ride a new one to victory!
Contains:
2 Double-Sided Game Boards, one for each player configuration!
14 Fantasy Races with matching banner & tokens
20 Special Power badges
10 Troll Lairs, 9 Mountains, 6 Fortresses, 5 Encampments, 2 Holes-in-the-ground & 1 Game Turn Marker
2 Heroes & 1 Dragon
109 Victory Coins
6 Player Summary Sheets
1 Reinforcement Die
1 Rules Booklet
1 Days of Wonder Online Access Number
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 | | Small World Board Game Images: | | | | | | | | | | |  | | Our Rating:
Our Review:
If you want a truly immersive fantasy experience in a complex, well-designed board game, then Small World is definitely for you. Following in the tradition of Days of Wonder's excellent line of games, Small World has gorgeous artwork, very high quality components, and lots of variation and layers of strategy that add flavor to the fantasy world you will play in.
One of the first things you will notice about Small World is that it has two game boards--there are actually four, two each on the sides of two different game boards. This is because there is a different game board for each number of players you might play with, from two to five. Rather than asking you to ignore certain portions of the Small World game board for smaller numbers of players, you have been given a customized, carefully tailored game board to optimize game play: a very nice touch.
It will take you a good while to punch out all the game tokens, each with a rendering of a certain race of creature. The artwork is a lot of fun for fantasy enthusiasts, the races of creatures including dwarves, elves, humans, giants, skeletons, ghouls, sorcerers, and others. It may take a solid 45 minutes to read through the rules enough to play, but don't let that intimidate you; there are handy Small World rules summary sheets that you can refer to during your first few games. You will actually find that the rules are pretty intuitive and fade to the background quickly. But don't expect to play within ten minutes of opening up the box for the first time, either.
To summarize, your goal in Small World is to control races of creatures that occupy as much of the game board as possible in each turn. Unlike other world domination games like Risk, points are scored after each turn in Small World, so one-turn campaigns are just as important as the way the board ends up at the end of the game. In Small World, players play a certain number of rounds and then the game ends, giving a practical cap to the time investment, which is something I always like in a game.
Each player in Small World picks among several options of races that are coupled to special power tokens. Then he takes the number of creature tokens specified by the race/power token combination. These represent his "army" for that race. Then he goes to work trying to conquer the various territories of the game board. Luck has very little to do with success in Small World, as battles for the most part are won by sheer numbers. There is a die, but it is typically only used during the last conquest of a player's turn. This predictability in battle increases the strategic planning and accelerates the game pace.
Eventually, a player will have conquered and/or lost enough of his race tokens that not much more can be done with that race. When this happens, the player puts that race in "decline," meaning it is no longer active for conquests, and then acquires a new race to begin the process of conquering Small World again. Points are awarded at the end of a player's turn based on how many territories tokens from his active and "in decline" races occupy. The player with the most point tokens at the end of the game wins.
Each race has something special about it, and the special ability tiles combined at random with the races make the variation in each game rich and interesting. You will never play the same game twice in Small World, and you will find yourself discovering new strategies in each successive game.
Small World is an excellent game with two, three, four, or five players, and children as young as 8 years old should be able to grasp the concepts and game play after playing through a game. It's a bit of a time investment, from about 45 to 90 minutes, but it's time well spent playing an engaging, interactive, creative, and beautiful game. We give Small World our very highest recommendation.
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User Reviews:
| Great Game if you love Strategy
I must say that Small World is the best strategy board game that I have ever played. I have had two friends purchase the game after I introduced to them, because they enjoyed it so much. We started a game night because of this game. What we like about the game is that each game we play is different than the previous games. I re-playability is fantastic. I also like that there is a bit of a social aspect to the game as well. I enjoy trying to convince my friends to attack someone else. The score is hidden and you need to make the case that one player is winning over another. I also think the expansions are a great value to make the game fresh and help bring even more strategy into the game.
If you grew up playing Risk, and was frustrated with the simplicity of the game and that your success was primarily based upon the dice, then this is a great game for you. I just cannot say enough about how great this game is.
by Michael (May 01 2011)
| Small World Board Game
it is so fun i play it evry day
by johnathon (Mar 09 2011)
| Very cool
Don't let the high complexity rating from this site scare you off. I played a game with my 8-year-old daughters, and they both loved it. (Half the fun for them was punching out and sorting the 10,000 game pieces.) I also think even a 1.5 rating on luck is too high. This game is mostly strategy, with the only luck coming from the optional dice-roll at the end of each turn. I really like the fact that this game has a certain number of rounds, and then you're done. Some aspects of this game remind us of Risk, another game we love, but one which my kids are reluctant to play unless we have a solid 2-3 hour block of time set aside.
by Ryan (Jan 18 2011)
|  geek nephews
Recently my older nephew and his wife gave the "game" to his 11 yr old brother (my nephew also) for his birthday and we all PLAYED ALL WEEKEND, Great Fun! As I told my sister/the Mom, "this ain't Candyland"
by UNCLE RICHARD (Apr 14 2010)
| Facile, fun, cool
Excellent jeu de plateau, bien moins complexe qu'un "monde des dieux".
Divers peuples, des territoires, s'étendre avant de passer en déclin.
De belles combos peuples-capacités à choisir avec discernement.
Seul défaut : il n'y a que 3 nains (+6 au maximum, il me smble), ce qui en fait un peuple des plus inutiles... Si un nain savait ça, il se lèverait et taperait sur le concepteur.
En extension, les gitanes sont sympathiques, ainsi qu'un peuple de clowns rouges, dont je ne me souviens le nom.
Bref, 4 étoiles et demi, pour le défaut des nains.
NAIN FOR EVER -!..! Meuheuh!!!
by Olivier Sel (Feb 26 2010)
| Brilliant
I'd give it 4.5 stars alone, but 5 with Expansions. It's fantastic. It takes about a game to catch on enough to make it fun, but then it's a blast.
by Jeremy (Jan 29 2010)
| This Ones a WInner!
I'm a grandmother and I buy a family game for each of my childrens families as part of their Christmas gift. This game has been an amazing hit with all ages. The college kids who came over during the holidays loved it as well as the younger kids.
I think the attraction is how the game changes and is unpredictable thus making multiple strategies work...it is never the same.
I have already ordered a copy for myself and as a gift for another board game loving friend.
Take time to learn the rules but after that it is easy to understand and play.
by Peggy (Jan 21 2010)
| Great Game After Figuring it Out
As already said the game is beautiful, the pieces are high quality and it really allows one to get immersed into a fun fantasy world.
The rule book is really confusing and if it were not for great patience and playing through the game once it eventually seemed pretty simple. This is no reason not to buy the game, and more of a caution to not give up if frustrated the first time. Everyone loved the game and I cannot wait to play again now that I know what I am doing. I have tons of German Strategy games and this is one of the most exciting introductions to a new game I have had in a while.
by Chuck (Jan 10 2010)
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